This invention relates generally to radar altimeter operations and more specifically, to systems and methods for addressing radar altimeter operation for a vehicle having a load suspended underneath.
Flight platforms must be able to maintain an altitude during hovering operations. An example of such a flight platform is a helicopter and examples of hovering operations include rescue maneuvers and delivery of loads that are suspended under the helicopter. More particularly, helicopters and other hovering flight platforms are sometimes utilized to carry loads suspended below the helicopter or flight platform. Therefore, such vehicles require an accurate above ground level (AGL) altitude sensing during maneuvers with the load. Particularly important is accurate altitude sensing during load pick up and load set down maneuvers.
Radar altimeters are commonly implemented within such flight platforms as part of an overall flight control system. Some of these flight platforms utilize flight control systems to maintain hovering altitudes, and these flight control systems rely on reliable data from radar altimeters during the hovering operations.
A radar altimeter typically includes a transmitter for applying pulses of electromagnetic energy, at a radio frequency (RF), and at regular intervals to an antenna which then radiates the energy, in the form of a transmit beam, towards the earth's surface. A transmit beam from a radar is sometimes said to “illuminate” an area (e.g. the ground) which reflects (returns) the transmit beam. The reflected beam, sometimes referred to as a ground return, is received at a receive antenna of the radar altimeter. A signal from the receive antenna is processed to determine an altitude.
When the beam is reflected by the ground, an accurate altitude determination is possible. Some known radar altimeters, however, may often lock on to the suspended load (i.e., the beam is reflected by the suspended load rather than by the ground). In such circumstances, the signal from the receive antenna provides a range (e.g., distance) to the load and not a range to the ground below the load.